TENNIS PLAYERS (Off-Court Shenanigans)

[ashkor87]

Osorio Serrano is looking much thinner and fitter.. lost some of that baby fat.. good for her. she has such great defense, I expect her to do well at the USO..

[ponchi101]

Uhm. I like Cami (if you don't down here, you are thrown out of the country) but I find her undersized and underpowered. She is very good, don't get me wrong, but I don't see her having tools to make it far at any slam UNLESS the draw is benign to the max.
Of course, Trevisan made it to a RG semi, and they are players with similar patterns, but I am unsold on Cami's potential.

[ti-amie]

When I first saw her, baby fat and all, I thought she might be the next WTA star to come out of South America. Her in your face style has been toned down and as she's lost the baby fat she's playing a more thoughtful style of tennis. I think she'll be low top 20's to 30's unless she goes back to her old style of play.

[ashkor87]

The latest 16 yr old sensation Andreeva when asked what was most special about Madrid "meeting andy Murray - he is so beautiful in real life!" - to which Murray replied " think how good she will be when she gets her eyes fixed!"

[ponchi101]

My GF only read Murray's reply, and we were wondering what he meant. Now, with your info, it makes sense and context. Txs.
About Murray. A severely underrated personality. To say the least.

[ashkor87]

My GF only read Murray's reply, and we were wondering what he meant. Now, with your info, it makes sense and context. Txs.
About Murray. A severely underrated personality. To say the least.

a real gentleman..

[JazzNU]

Roger visited the tennis center up in the Bronx and watched some of the kids play and hit with them too. I'll post if I see some photos or video. Very nice. He's in town for the Met Gala.

[JazzNU]

Roger visited the tennis center up in the Bronx and watched some of the kids play and hit with them too. I'll post if I see some photos or video. Very nice. He's in town for the Met Gala.

[meganfernandez]

This could be an entirely personal issue or distraction, something happening off-court. Who knows. This, in particular, is garbage without any substantiation: How effectively she is moving on remains to be seen, because this interview suggested someone who is beginning to feel trapped on the never-ending carousel of the professional tennis tour. Raducanu practised with Poland’s Magda Linette at Madrid’s Caja Magica on Tuesday morning, but there must be some question about whether she feels completely ready to compete.

The reason that there were so many questions about Burrage is because if Raducanu loses early Burrage will become the British #1.

16 questions, 58 words: Emma Raducanu shows the strain in bizarre press conference
The Briton has been handed a nightmare Madrid Open draw that leaves her facing a huge challenge to avoid dropping more ranking points

By
Simon Briggs,
TENNIS CORRESPONDENT, IN MADRID
25 April 2023 • 7:47pm

A drained-looking Emma Raducanu showed worrying signs of strain in Madrid, as she dead-batted all attempts to initiate the traditional pre-tournament interview.

Presented with 16 gentle questions – on subjects ranging from her chronic wrist trouble to the recent good form of her friend and compatriot Jodie Burrage – Raducanu offered a combined tally of just 58 words.

After a little less than three minutes, the attempted conversation grew so awkward that a media-liaison official from the Women’s Tennis Association was forced to step in, with a brisk “I think let’s just leave it there.”

Raducanu’s uncooperative mood was unexpected, as the one area where she has remained poised and confident since her triumphant drive to the 2021 US Open title has been in her dealings with the media.

Normally, she is bright, talkative and engaging during press conferences. At this very tournament 12 months ago, she entertained a group of reporters with an anecdote about her A-levels, before adding cheerfully that “Even when I’m losing, I find it a great challenge to pick myself back up.”

But Raducanu’s world-weary demeanour on Tuesday made one wonder whether her recent run of three straight defeats – stretching back to Indian Wells six weeks ago – has tested that resilience to breaking point.

This is an important tournament for her, as she stands to forfeit 110 of her 740 rankings points if she were to lose her first-round match. A fourth straight defeat would constitute the worst sequence of her professional career, while also sending her sliding just outside the world’s top 100.

A three-figure ranking could potentially impact on her sponsorship deals. Many players have ranking-linked clauses in their contracts, although it is unknown whether this applies to any of Raducanu’s eight endorsements.

Either way, she could do with a morale-boosting win when she faces world No 73 Viktoriya Tomova on Wednesday afternoon in the unusual high-altitude conditions of Madrid. Not that a deep run here seems plausible, given that the winner of that first-round match will go on to face the dominant world No 1 Iga Swiatek in their next outing.

It was Swiatek who began Raducanu’s mini form-slump – which has involved losses to three successive grand-slam champions – when she delivered a 6-3, 6-1 beating in the fourth round of Indian Wells. And Swiatek has only gathered strength since then, having celebrated the return to her favoured clay by lifting the Stuttgart title on Sunday.

Asked about her draw here, Raducanu replied listlessly “It is what it is.” She was equally unforthcoming about her chronic wrist trouble (“We’re managing it”) and Jelena Ostapenko’s performance in thrashing her 6-2, 6-1 in Stuttgart last week (“She played a great match.”)

In all, she averaged three-and-a-half words per question, with the longest answer coming to an enquiry about her three-set defeat at the hands of Bianca Andreescu in Miami a month ago. “Yeah it was a good trip in America, tough match,” said Raducanu. “But yeah, moving on.”

How effectively she is moving on remains to be seen, because this interview suggested someone who is beginning to feel trapped on the never-ending carousel of the professional tennis tour. Raducanu practised with Poland’s Magda Linette at Madrid’s Caja Magica on Tuesday morning, but there must be some question about whether she feels completely ready to compete.

In March, Raducanu said that she had deleted Instagram and WhatsApp from her phone in order to insulate herself from the negativity of social media. Even so, she may still be feeling the weight of criticism from those who expect her to play world-beating tennis every week.

The most frequent barbs tend to concern her sponsorship commitments, which continue to be highly visible. Only in the last week or so, she has appeared in the new British Airways safety video – where she was filmed stowing a passenger’s luggage in the rack – and in a Vodafone campaign that boasted “the world’s first 5G hologram coaching session” between Raducanu and a pair of young hopefuls.

Both these clips were broadcast to her 2.5m Instagram followers, presumably by a third party who is now handling her account. But while Raducanu the corporate icon keeps plugging away, the real-life 20-year-old behind the hoopla is beginning to look like a shadow of her former, carefree self.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2023 ... drid-open/

[ponchi101]

This could be an entirely personal issue or distraction, something happening off-court. Who knows. This, in particular, is garbage without any substantiation: How effectively she is moving on remains to be seen, because this interview suggested someone who is beginning to feel trapped on the never-ending carousel of the professional tennis tour. Raducanu practised with Poland’s Magda Linette at Madrid’s Caja Magica on Tuesday morning, but there must be some question about whether she feels completely ready to compete.


...

Ready mentally, physically, both?
The list of players that reached a very high position and then never came close to repeating is not empty. Of course, the problem for Emma is that her high was very, very high. So now, the low is more noticeable.
Look at Podoroska. RG semis, and then... invisibility. But, of course, outside of Argentina, nobody had a microscope examining her. So that story lacks any traction.

[nelslus]

Honestly- with all of the pressures young newsworthy women face- especially when Emma is freakin' 20 years old (and Coco, btw, is 19 years old)- maybe, once and for all, it's time to, as much as possible, leave them all the heck alone. Let them grow up, and see what happens. How many Brooke Shields and Britney documentaries do we need before we finally get that-iMO, all of us are a huge part of the problem facing these young women?

[mmmm8]

Roger visited the tennis center up in the Bronx and watched some of the kids play and hit with them too. I'll post if I see some photos or video. Very nice. He's in town for the Met Gala.

Let's say "in The Bronx!" again like it's a remote village in the Amazon that you can only get to by a days-long boat trip.

[ponchi101]

Honestly- with all of the pressures young newsworthy women face- especially when Emma is freakin' 20 years old (and Coco, btw, is 19 years old)- maybe, once and for all, it's time to, as much as possible, leave them all the heck alone. Let them grow up, and see what happens. How many Brooke Shields and Britney documentaries do we need before we finally get that-iMO, all of us are a huge part of the problem facing these young women?

Sorry. Not ALL OF US. Emma, and Coco and Leylah, get a lot of support in this forum, and we clearly understand they are 19-20 yo.
But, unfortunately, when you are the face of plenty of high class brands and your profession is based on results, this is part of the deal. You would have to change a lot of things for this to get any better.

[JazzNU]

Honestly- with all of the pressures young newsworthy women face- especially when Emma is freakin' 20 years old (and Coco, btw, is 19 years old)- maybe, once and for all, it's time to, as much as possible, leave them all the heck alone. Let them grow up, and see what happens. How many Brooke Shields and Britney documentaries do we need before we finally get that-iMO, all of us are a huge part of the problem facing these young women?

I think most people are giving Coco time to get where she needs to be with her game, they know she's young and there's time. For Emma, I think she brought a lot of the attention on herself, not by winning, but by signing so many high-profile endorsement contracts and by leaning into all the social media attention she got early on**, it put her in the limelight in a way that hasn't happened with others. Now, she HAD to sign those endorsements, they were offered, she can't just walk away, these are once in a lifetime opportunities, and honestly, if her game never gets back to the USO level, it will be fantastic for her and her family that she did get this much exposure, she'll be able to ride this fame into the sunset in style like a low-budget Anna K.

I've said for a long time that if they stop covering Emma so closely, she would get her game together quicker. But the more influential tennis orgas and media aren't here for that. If you're not aware, they are the ones hitting us ad nauseum with Emma content on social media, not fans seeking it out. The main replies from non-Brits are that we don't need this level of attention on her, but they ignore that sentiment despite being brought up very, very regularly. So I don't blame the fans here, most are happy to leave her alone and just hear the occasional tennis news they'd hear about any other player.

I hear where you're coming from, but I don't think Brooke and Britney are apt comparisons unless we're trying to look closer at her parents role in all of this.


**Not everyone remembers this and since many of you have a problem with social media you may not have personally seen the level of the attention, but her fame started before the US Open. After her success as a Brit advancing and the attention that brings and then the manner with which she exited Wimbledon that year and the backlash at some of the commentary (Johnnie Mac in particular), she got an insane amount of attention on social media and also a slightly reduced, but still significant level from traditional media. She leaned all the way into all of that. Welcomed the attention and seemed to revel in it. That is part of why the brands pounced after the US Open win, she had already established a crazy large following and a level of attention where it was a no brainer to offer her some kind of brand ambassador role.

[nelslus]

What I meant by "all of us", to be clear, was not directed any of us in here. I mean literally a more general world-wide "all of us". I mean, it's not exactly likely that Emma, Coco, etc. are gonna read what we're writing about in here.

Whatever choices Emma has made, she's still 20. I don't think we could expect her to fully understand the repercussions for her "choices" out there in our real world. Adults do know.

I'm very much sticking with my view that adults out there should give these young women (and young men, to be clear) a break. Also, my mentions of Britney and Brooke had nothing to do with parental comparisons at all. I just think the media, fans, etc. demand far too much from young folks. The world just burns out far too many talented youngsters out of their pursuing their talents and careers to their fullest.